The Amityville Horror

5/15/2021

_**That iconic creepy house on Long Island**_ A newlywed couple moves into a shoreline house on Long Island with their three little kids. The house was the scene of a mass killing a year earlier but the parents (James Brolin & Margot Kidder) didn’t think it mattered and, besides, it enabled them to purchase the homestead at a much reduced price. Then strange things start happening. "The Amityville Horror" (1979) was arguably the best haunted house movie up to that point in time and was hugely successful at the box office, inspiring a gazillion sequels, remakes and documentaries. There are similarities to "The Shining" (1980): Both movies were based on books published in 1977, but the film version of "The Amityville Horror" was released a year prior to “The Shining” and was based on

5/1/2026

This movie set a lot of ground for other horror movies and did a lot of heavy lifting. The overt religious themes might have aged poorly. But the character work and the effective use of the flashbacks and dream sequences make this movie still work as a vehicle for tension. It is a very good horror movie with a great cast and lovely direction and a legacy that you really can't deny.